I think it’s safe to say that my brother won at Christmas gifting this year. Not only did he buy a bomb present for my husband (a Nintendo Switch game that’s very reminiscent of Final Fantasy games from years gone by – not like the current terribleness that exists), but he also picked me up a bunch of items from KIKO’s holiday 2018 collection. My brother has never bought me makeup before, and I actually thought my *MOM* had purchased these items, and not him. So imagine my surprise when he said he’d lugged these over from Europe (he lives in the Netherlands)!

I realize holiday collections being reviewed in January are kind of stupid (and I’m personally laughing at bloggers putting out holiday advent calendar reviews right now… really guys… what are you doing), but all of these items are still currently available on KIKO‘s site, so I figured I might as well show off these gorgeous products. KIKO isn’t readily accessible in Canada whatsoever, so this was a nice treat!

I think the first item I opened was this Party Time Sparkling Holiday eyeshadow quad, and while I was doing so my brother was telling me the story of how he was in KIKO and the sales clerk kept pointing him towards neutral makeup for me. He kept correcting her – telling her that I wore bright colours, but she kept pushing him towards more neutral options. (The whole idea of this scenario makes me laugh – because she probably thought he had no idea what he was saying because neutrals are definitely more common than colours. I bet she was shaking her head at him thinking he had no idea what he was talking about!) She did manage to sell him on this very neutral eyeshadow quad with three mattes and one metallic glitter-shimmer shade. The matte shades are very basic in tone – a brow bone highlight shade, a transition colour, and an outer corner deepener. The star of the show is definitely that copper-gold shade, and it’s HECKIN’ glittery. It applies smoothly and opaquely, but if you want the glitter to not drop all over your face throughout the day (I’m not bothered) you’ll need to use some kind of glitter adhesive primer on your eye. I feel like this quad would make a lot of neutral lovers happy because it’s got all your basic shades and a glitter for fun. The colours are pigmented and easy to blend.

The Liquid Highlighter was an interesting choice by my brother. He’s not up to speed on what kinds of makeup I wear, so I was surprised to see a highlighter in the mix (it’s not one of the first things I would think a guy would pick up to be honest), especially a liquid one. At first swatch it’s really reflective (swatches are below by the way), but once you blend out it blurs out to a more creamy, less shiny consistency. I found I preferred this layered twice on my cheekbones for extra impact. I’m just so used to blazing highlighters that a subtle one never feels like enough anymore! That being said, I like that you CAN layer this. If you want to wear it subtly, apply one layer. Extra bang? Apply a second. I also like that the tube isn’t enormous. I have some liquid highlighters that I have no hope in hell of ever finishing because there’s just SO much product in the tube (hello Cover FX highlighters!).

And the last item he picked up for me from KIKO was this unreal metallic eyeshadow in All of Blue. I could NOT believe the colour on this, and, truly, my photograph of it is not doing it justice. This is like blue, molten fire. It’s super saturated in the pan. It’s looks like a kind of metal that is in the middle of cooling but would still be hot to the touch. That’s the best way I can think to describe the impact of this colour in person. I quite literally gasped when I saw it. And I was so proud of my brother for managing to snag this colour from KIKO despite the clerk trying to steer him towards neutrals!

Swatched out you can see the colours a bit better. The liquid highlighter is obviously a heavy swatch – but I liked to blur it out with my fingertips on the tops of my cheekbones. The Party Time quad is a solid neutral palette with that extra bang of glitter. And the All of Blue metallic shadow? Swatches like garbage. *lol* Initially I was really worried about that swatch because it wasn’t coming across as  beautifully as I had hoped (it’s a different story on the lids though!).

Party Time quad on the eyes is the easiest holiday look you could ever hope for – easy to use shades with that extra orangey-gold glitter.

The liquid highlighter is stunning! It’s actually more subtle here in this photo than I feel like it is in person (this is two layers), but man is it ever gorgeous! I’m starting to have a soft spot for liquid highlighters because they have a more “lit from within” look than powder highlighters (could be my aging skin!).

And the blue eyeshadow. Wow. WOW. Just look at that colour! I used a very stiff, flat brush to apply it to my lids and was so happy with how the pigmentation came out on my eyes. It is SO much better on the eyes than the swatch belied. You may notice a tiny gap in pigmentation on the inner third of my eye – it’s not the shadow doing that – I’m having a weird problem with gaps there lately with any and all shadows I’m using.

Final Thoughts

Uhhhh…. wow?!? First off, I never expected my brother to buy me makup for Christmas, so that was one hell of a surprise! Secondly, while the neutral quad is not quite up my alley due to the nature of the shades, the quality is excellent and I enjoyed playing with it. BUT… the best products I tried were definitely that liquid highlighter and that bold metallic blue eyeshadow. Those are phenomenal products that really suit what I look for in makeup, so I am dead pleased to have those in my collection now!

While not available in Canada, the KIKO Sparkling Holiday collection can be purchased on KIKO’s US web site and it appears that almost the entire collection is about 50%!

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